


Otaniyien recommended I stick to these, as my calves are tighter than a pair of Lululemon leggings.
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Not as simple as I first thought…Īs well as a traditional barbell squat, I also learnt how to nail a front squat – similar to the back squat except with the barbell across your shoulders. One simple move to combine all muscles? Sounds like a transformation dream – that is until you’ve tried squatting your own bodyweight. By focusing on compound movements like squats and deadlifts, these help to “stimulate the most amount of muscles with one movement,” Otaniyien tells me. I later realised these big lifts were key to my training. In the first week, I was introduced to two new exercises the squat and the deadlift. I’d previously heard of DOMS but my word, I’d never experienced them like this. My head trainer, Otaniyien Ekiomado designed a strength training program for me and along with a protein-rich and low carb diet, the fun began.Īfter my first week, walking downstairs was nearly impossible and getting my sports bra over my head was near torture. My training routine began with three sessions a week, which after two weeks increased to 4 sessions.

My beginner weight lifting routine: Learning about the benefits of weight training RELATED: 7 Ways To Make Sure Your Strength Training Delivers Results I instantly save images of Steph Claire-Smith to my camera roll for inspo – time to make the unachievable achievable. Despite working for a health magazine, I was still cloaked with fear at even the sight of a squat rack.Įnter Evolve’s 12-week transformation plan, designed to get you leaner and stronger with minimal cardio and a lot of picking up and putting down heavy stuff – otherwise known as strength training.Įvolve claim to help you make ‘big changes and kick bad habits so you can achieve things that you once thought unachievable’.
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I know, it’s not exactly radical given the rise in popularity of strength training, but without my trusted cross trainer, the idea of entering the free weights area was terrifying. So, I made a vow with myself to stop the endless hours of cardio purely for calorie burn and educate myself on how to go to the gym, and learn to lift weights. Give me a weight bench and I probably would’ve taken a seat to scroll through Instagram. As a former cardio queen, my workouts would start on the running machine and end on the cross trainer until I’d burnt at least 600 calories. I realised my personal gym knowledge was, well, average to poor. I’d lost my gym mojo, feeling lost without the regiment of the classes I’d been following during my previous transformation. Combined with a new-found love of peanut butter, before I knew it, the majority of the weight was back on.

And when I say fell, I mean I spectacularly tumbled off the wagon and into a proverbial pile of everything I’d tried so hard to avoid over the past 12 weeks. But after 12 weeks of gruelling HIIT training -dubbed the best cardio for weight loss -and a very strict diet, it’s fair to say I fell off the bandwagon. In 2017, I took part in a staff 12 week challenge and dropped 10% body fat, looking and feeling leaner. Okay, so I’m no stranger to a transformation challenge.
